Real Wedding: Brent and Lewarna

Posted on 20 July, 2017

Lewarna and Brent’s country wedding was rustic and elegant with handmade touches.

While Brent’s proposal took place on the top of a snowy mountain after a long day of snowboarding, their wedding was an elegant country affair featuring gorgeous handmade touches and beautiful blooms.

GETTING READY

The boys spent the morning getting ready at our home in Fraser, while the girls had their hair and makeup done at Zaija in the city before heading back to the Burbury Hotel.

THE DRESS

My dress was purchased from Annabel’s Bridal Studio in Canberra, I went in one day for a quick look not realising I needed to make a decision so soon if I wanted a dress to be ready in time for the big day.

I went in looking for a big princess style gown, I tried about four or five dresses on and loved them all until I tried on the Peter Trends Oxfordshire – I definitely got the “this is the one” feeling, but it felt too easy to have found the dress on day one of shopping so I travelled to Sydney and Wollongong the following weekends to continue the search, after 10 or so more dresses I went back to the one I loved all along.

This dress was nothing like what I had been looking for, I wanted something big and poofy and came out with this sleek, fitted beauty.

I loved the colour of this dress – with an olive skin tone all the ‘white’ dresses I had tried just didn’t work. And the detail was just stunning.

CEREMONY

I think I felt every single emotion possible at some point throughout the day/night. We had spent months on end planning so when the day finally arrived it all felt a bit surreal.

The best feeling was standing at the altar with my soon to be husband, despite the fact we were there in front of 130 people it felt like we were the only ones in the room.

I had never thought too much about my wedding day prior to being engaged, but one thing I did know was when the day came it would always be at The Chapel – it is just the most stunning place to be married.

Neither of us are religious so a church wedding was not for us, but neither was the more popular outdoor wedding so the chapel was the perfect fit.

We are both from small country towns and whilst we weren’t interested in getting married in either of our home towns we did want something that reflected our small country backgrounds, Gold Creek Station was an ideal reception venue – the country feel we were looking for without having to leave Canberra.

We both have large families so narrowing the guest list was one of our biggest challenges – we had 130 guests attend our wedding.

RECEPTION

I spent months planning the styling of the reception – it turned out 100% like the vision I had had all those months earlier – all thanks to the tribe of helpers we had in the days prior.

Setting up the reception was a HUGE job, we spent hours on end cleaning and prepping the venue beforehand. My style for the wedding was rustic country elegance, this included a lot of DIY signage, table settings and centrepieces, our extremely talented florist was the icing on the cake with an abundance of florals filling the room.

My 94-year-old Grandmother handmade individual jams for our Bonbonniere’s, they were a big hit with all our guests and it was so special for us to have my grandmother there on the day.

HIGHLIGHTS

Our photographers were incredible! The entire time we were having photos taken felt like no one was watching; the photos are totally raw and are a perfect reflection of our day. Would recommend Keepsake Photography to everyone!

The other was the comments we received about the detail, many commented that we had thought of everything and didn’t leave anything out.

Tips for future married couples

Because we didn’t have a fixed budget it was quite easy to overspend.

The one/two things I would say is an absolute MUST is photographers and videographers – 100% worth spending whatever you need to get exactly what you want. At the end of the day the photos and videos are what you have left to remember the day. It is one of the best days of your life and the more you can have to remember the day the better – I am so looking forward to receiving our wedding video to be able to relive the day even more.

Our friends/family made some incredible speeches and I would be so disappointed if we didn’t capture those on film.

Is there anything you’d do differently?

The one thing I would change if I could is to start hair/makeup earlier, we were an hour over schedule finishing which made for a rushed morning – I would have liked to have a bit more time to enjoy getting ready and take it all in.

Your absolute favourite part of the day?

So hard to decide as I loved the entire day, we finished the formalities with a father daughter dance and then opened the dance floor to all our guests, instead of the tradition of the bridal party dancing together we had everyone dance with their own partners, seeing everyone that we love up on the dance floor being so genuinely happy and getting to dance with my husband was the best feeling.

THE LITTLE DETAILS

PHOTOGRAPHY Keepsake Photography by the Keefes

VIDEOGRAPHY Way Up High

CELEBRANT Steven Murray

BRIDE’S DRESS Peter Trends Oxfordshire – Annabel’s Bridal Studio

VEIL Annabel’s Bridal Studio

HEADPIECE Lulusplendor

BRIDE’S SHOES Badgley & Mischka

BRIDE’S JEWELLERY Samantha Wills

BRIDESMAIDS’ DRESSES Shona Joy – Bridesmaids Only

GROOM + GROOMSMEN’S SUITS Connor

BRIDE’S HAIR Shupinder Sidhu – Zaija

BRIDESMAIDS’ HAIR Shupinder Sidhu & Shavon Troth – Zaija

MAKEUP Zoe Krahe – Zaija

FLOWERS Peony N Pearl

CAKE LaOmbre Creations

BAND Chicago Charles

STATIONERY Personally Invited

FIRST DANCE SONG From the ground up – Dan & Shay